Art with Arias
$20
When:
Saturday, June 13, 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Alfred Thompson Bricher, United States, 1837–1908, Coastal Scene (Bay of Fundy, Canada) Ships Along the Shore, 1885–1890, oil on canvas, 15 13/16 x 32 inches, Courtesy of Portland Museum of Art.
The PMA and Opera Maine's prestigious Studio Artist Program present a special summer recital, performing a diverse repertoire spanning multiple genres in response to artworks in the PMA collection.
The Canadian-American baritone Micah Schroeder has been celebrated for his “smooth-as-glass lyrical contours” (The National Post) and is known for his versatility in opera and concert repertoire. He graduated from the Opéra National de Lyon’s opera studio and was a member of Vancouver Opera’s Yulanda M. Faris Young Artist Program. Recent highlights include Ivàn in the world premiere of Malina by Karola Obermüller and Peter Gilbert at the Schwetzingen Festival and Theater Aachen, and his debut in Claude Vivier’s Kopernikus at the Teatro Mayor in Bogotá. In 2027, he joins the Allee Theater in Hamburg for performances of Papageno in Die Zauberflöte. His artistic work focuses particularly on French repertoire, contemporary music, and new works and his standard repertoire includes roles like Papageno, Pelléas, Don Giovanni, Eugene Onegin, Schaunard, Figaro, and Count Almaviva. Shaped by his German-Armenian heritage, he combines stylistic versatility with a distinct artistic signature.
Richard Gammon, a Filipino American stage director, has directed for Wolf Trap Opera, Detroit Opera, Hawai’i Opera Theatre, and Virginia Opera. Acutely interested in contemporary American opera, he directed the world premieres of Family Style, Kandake, and Black Coffee for Opera Theatre of Saint Louis’ New Works Collective, The Lake at ArtSounds; and new productions of Bound (Anchorage Opera), Scalia/Ginsburg (Princeton Festival), Buoso’s Ghost (Detroit Opera), and An American Dream (Hawai’i Opera Theatre, Virginia Opera, Opera Santa Barbara). Richard, as the director of the Opera Maine Studio Artist Program, programs and directs almost exclusively contemporary operas including Paul's Case, Rappahannock County, As One, and Rocking Horse Winner. Creative positions include directing for the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival, the National Asian Artists Project, and Cleveland Play House; leading workshops for NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program; and creative associate for Seán Curran Company’s Dream’d in a Dream (BAM Next Wave Festival).
Pianist and conductor, Brendon Shapiro, equally at home in the classical and musical theatre spheres, is a champion for the development of new vocal music in both genres. Based in Boston, Brendon is a sought-after vocal coach and a regular pianist at Boston Lyric Opera, The Huntington, and Odyssey Opera. As a pianist and music director, he's helped to bring major productions to life across the country. Brendon is an alumnus of Los Angeles Opera's Young Artist Program where he worked with such artists as Renée Fleming, Brian Stokes Mitchell, and Dove Cameron on The Light in the Piazza, Susan Graham in recital, played a key role in the musical preparation of Matthew Aucoin's Eurydice, and returned post-pandemic to work on Rhiannon Giddens' and Michael Abels' Omar. Other companies include San Francisco Opera, Opera Omaha, Bard SummerScape Festival, Woodstock Playhouse, ArtLab Productions, Opera Maine, Opera Steamboat, and many more.
He currently helps bring new works to life at Catalyst New Music, a company he co-founded with his husband in 2022, through which they have workshopped and presented several new full-length pieces and established the popular song development program FUSE: Collaborations in Song, now in its fourth season. Brendon has also conducted at Boston Conservatory, MassOpera, Opera Fayetteville, and Boston Opera Collaborative and coaches extensively from his home in Malden, Massachusetts, where he lives with his husband, tenor and composer, Omar Najmi, and his tuxedo cat Wally. He also is currently designing a board game about running an opera company.
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